Rotary system driven by electrical energy



May 30, 1961 J. M. CLUWEN ROTARY SYSTEM DRIVEN BY ELECTRICAL ENERGY Original Filed 001;. 20, 1955 INVENTOR. JOHANNES M. CLUWEN b Q xii ROTARY SYSTEM DRIVEN BY ELECTRICAL ENERGY Johannes Meyer Cluwen, Eindhoven, Netherlands, as-

signor, by mesne assignments, to North American Philips Company, Inc., New York, N.Y., a corporation of Delaware Original application Oct. 20, 1955, Ser. No. 541,785,

now Patent No. 2,890,400, dated June 9, 1959. Divided and this application Feb. 18, 1959, Ser. No. 799,831

1 Claim. (Cl. 318-138) This invention relates to rotary systems driven by electrical energy. It has for its object to provide a simple device which permits, for example, a very high speed of the rotary system, and is characterized in that the rotary system comprises at least one permanent magnet, poles of which cooperate with a pick-up coil and a driving coil, thus producing electrical oscillations in the pick-up coil which are supplied to the driving coil through an electric amplifier fed by the electrical energy.

Conventional devices comprising rotary systems driven by electrical energy and having permanent magnets are based on the so-called electric motor principle whereby alternating current energy is supplied to the stator windings of an electric motor, thus causing rotation of the permanent magnetic armature of the motor at a speed determined by the frequency of the alternating current. In order to be able to increase the speed, it would be necessary for the alternating-current frequency to be adjusted to steadily increasing values. Due to the invention, the required alternating current is supplied by the electric amplifier, so that its frequency is always matched to the speed of the rotary system.

In order that the invention may be readily carried into effect, it will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 shows a device according to the invention.

Fig. 2 is a plan view on part of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a variant of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 shows time diagrams which serve to explain Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 illustrates a different manner of feeding a device as shown in Fig. 1 or 3.

In the embodiment shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the rotary system comprises a circular magnetic disc 1 of axial magnetisation which is arranged on a shaft 2 and flanked by weak-magnetic discs 3 and 4. The discs 3 and 4 are provided with teeth 5 and 6 by bending of the weak-magnetic material, which teeth co-operate with weak-magnetic cores 7 and 8, respectively, of an immovably arranged pick-up coil 9 and a similarly arranged driving coil 10, respectively. The coils 9 and 10 are interconnected via an amplifier 1 1 and a source of supply 12.

The poles N and S of the disc 1 when rotating via the teeth 5 and 6 produce an alternating magnetic flux in the core 7, thus inducing in the coil 9 an alternating voltage which, after being amplified in the amplifier 11, produces a corresponding current in the coil 19. Said current produces a magnetic field which, with appropriate winding direction of the coil 10, causes at the correct moment attraction of the teeth 5 via the core 8, thus maintaining the rotational movement of the disc 1.

The energy for the device is fully supplied by the source 12, the disc 1, once being started acquiring a steadily increasing speed until the energy of the current pulses supplied to the coil 10 and the amplitude of which is limited in conformity with the value of the source 12 is in equilibrium with the energy released by the rotary system United States Patent Ofiice 2,986,684 Patented May 30, 1961 -1, 2, 3, 4. With constant load on the rotary system 1, 2, 3, 4, the speed is thus substantially determined only by the value of the source of supply 12 and may increase to very high values inter alia owing to the light construction of the system.

It is possible not only to utilise the rotational energy thus produced, but also the production of the electric current pulses may be the particular purpose of the device. The rotary system may either be connected, for example, to an ultra-centrifuge or a Nipkow" disc, or form part of a gyroscopic compass. Furthermore, when use is made of a sufficiently large number of teeth, it may be operated at lower speeds, for example for driving the turntable of an electric record player. On the other hand, the electric alternating current produced, if desired after frequency multiplication, may serve to supply an electric circuit, it being possible, if desired, to utilise, for example, automatic frequency control by controlling the value of the source 12.

In the embodiment shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the two coils 9 and 10 may, if desired, be arranged close to one another or even on a common core. Furthermore, it is possible, if necessary, to arrange a plurality of coupled pick-up and/or driving coils along the circumference of the toothed rims of the discs 3 and 4.

Fig. 3 shows an example in which the two coils are united to form one coil 15 having a tapping 16, which is connected to the amplifier 11 so as to constitute during operation a negative resistance parallel to the coil 15. The core 17 of the coil 15 co-operates with a permanent magnetic armature '18 having diametric magnetisation and the rotation of which is maintained by the electrical energy of source 12 in a similar manner as in Figure l.

The amplifier 11 is preferably operated at class-B adjustment, in which event substantially no output current flows when the rotary system is at rest and hence the voltage pulses across the input of the amplifier are absent, so that the source 12 need supply substantially no energy. The circuit 1115 of Figure 3 for this purpose is to be adjusted in such manner that it does not start to oscillate or does not keep oscillating of its own accord.

The amplifier 11 could advantageously be a class-B push-pull amplifier. However, if for economy purposes, it is constructed as a monophase amplifier, such as shown, there is a difliculty involved in Figs. 1 and 3. The difficulty is that the cores 7, 8 and 17, on account of the interaction with the magnet poles, may cause the rotational movement to be braked at the moments at which the amplifier 11 is cut off. This may lead to irregularities in the rotational movement,

In the embodiment shown in Figure 1, this difficulty may be avoided by choosing the winding direction of the coils 9 and 10 to be such that at the moments at which the amplifier 11 is unblocked, the core 8 exerts a repelling force upon the teeth 5 and 6 which then just pass along, said force neutralizing the braking force exerted upon the teeth by the core 7.

In the embodiment shown in Figure 3, this is achieved by the use of an auxiliary magnet 19. Figure 4 shows, as a function of the time t, the magnetic flux I through the core 17, the force K exerted by magnets 18 and 19 upon one another, and the force K, exerted upon the magnet 18, as a result of the current i flowing through the coil 15. Obviously, a force always driving the armature magnet 18 is obtained by the cooperation of the forces K and K,.

When the amplifier 11 is a transistor, an advantageous use may be made of the fact that the voltage and current pulses produced have very steep flanks at high speeds, so that it becomes possible to derive considerably greater current pulses from the transistor and hence to supply considerably more energy to the driving coil than on the ground of the product of this current and the supply voltage would be permissible as the maximum power f r the transistor, since during these current pulses the voltage produced at the collector electrode of the transistor is still so small only that not only the current pulses are limited, but also so little energy is dissipated in the transistor that a risk of overload may be avoided. However, for high powers, use will be made of electron tube amplifiers, for example thyratron amplifiers.

A transistor also afiords the possibility of alternating current supply as shown in Figure 5. The pick-up coil 9 and the driving coil 10, shown diagrammatically, which may be united to form one coil having a tapping as shown in Figure 3, are interconnected via the transistor amplifier 11 as shown in Figures 1 and 3. However, its collector circuit now includes, instead of the source 12 of direct current supply, a source 23 of alternating current supply in series with a comparatively large capacitor 24, which latter during one phase of the alternating voltage of the source 23 is charged by collector-base rectification to a voltage equal to the amplitude of the alternating voltage, whereas during the other phase of the alternating voltage it gradually discharges as a result of the current pulses flowing through the coil 10. By adding an inductor 25 and a capacitor 26, these current pulses may be prevented from flowing away through the source 23 or alternating current from flowing from the source 23 directly through the inductor 10. The speed of the rotary system 27 is in this case independent of the frequency of the alternating voltage.

What is claimed is:

Apparatus for maintaining mechanical rotation, com prising a pickup coil, a single permanent magnet of substantially cylindrical configuration rotatively mounted in operative relation to said coil, said magnet having a plurality of polarities so arranged with respect to said coil that an electric pulse is produced by said coil each time a portion of said magnet wherein a change of polarity occurs passes in close proximity to said coil, and means responsive to said pulses for exerting driving force pulses upon said magnet thereby to sustain said magnet in rotative motion relative to said coil, said pulse responsive means comprising a driving coil mounted in operative relation to said magnet and pulse amplifier means interposed between said pickup coil and said driving coil, said driving coil being constructed and arranged in relation to said pickup coil so as to exert a repelling force on said magnet upon the application of an energizing pulse from said pickup coil through said amplifier means, said amplifier means comprising a transistor having emitter, collector and base electrodes, a source of supply alternating voltage and means forming an emitter-base input circuit and a collector-base output circuit, said pickup coil being connected in said input circuit and said driving coil and said voltage source being connected in said output circuit.

No references cited. 

